Eat, Drink & Be Literary brings major contemporary authors to BAMcafé for intimate readings, engaging discussions, and a festive meal.

Presented in partnership with Brooklyn Academy of Music

Moderated by John Freeman

“the most brilliant of his generation, one of the world’s few geniuses” —Garth Greenwell

“Evident throughout is a profound imagination, matched only by the poet’s ability to create a republic of conscience that is ultimately ours, too, and utterly his own” —The New Yorker on Deaf Republic

Ilya Kaminsky is the author of the acclaimed poetry collection Deaf Republic, which was called a work of “profound imagination” by The New Yorker and was a finalist for the 2019 National Book Award in Poetry. He is also the author of Dancing In Odessa and Musica Humana. His poems have been translated into numerous languages and his books have been published in Turkey, Holland, Russia, France, Mexico, Macedonia, Romania, Spain, and China.

Kaminsky lost most of his hearing at age four after a misdiagnosis of mumps as a cold. In the late 1990s, Kaminsky co-founded Poets For Peace, an organization that sponsors poetry readings in the US and abroad. He currently holds the Bourne Chair in Poetry and is Director of Poetry@Tech at Georgia Tech.

Moderator: John Freeman

John Freeman is the editor of Freeman’s, a literary annual of new writing, and executive editor of Literary Hub. His books include How to Read a Novelist, Dictionary of the Undoing, Tales of Two Americas, an anthology about income inequality in America, and Tales of Two Cities, an anthology of new writing about inequality in New York City. He is the author of two collections of poems, Maps and The Park. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, and The New York Times.